カテゴリー: Keith先生

こんにちは😊今日は久しぶりにキースのブログです。

福岡でのキースのチャリ（自転車）アドベンチャーについてですが、

オージーらしさがよく出ていて面白いです。

今回は特に難しい語彙はありませんので、語彙をつけていません。

気軽に読んでみてくださいね。

 

 

Hey everyone, it’s been a while!

Keith here with another blog to share with you all.

 

For those who have read my blogs before, you may remember I wrote a blog about me going on an adventure on my bicycle a while ago.

Well, recently I went on another adventure!

 

Last time, I followed Muromi River and ended up at Mt. Iimori (飯盛山).

This time, I decided to follow the coast road to see what kind of places I could see along the way.

If you have talked with me at the cafe before, you should know that I love the beach, so I was pretty excited to go along the coast to see them!

 

I left my house around 11:00AM. The weather wasn’t very good, but I decided that even if it rains, I am going on an adventure.

My first stop was Odo Park (小戸公園). The weather was still pretty bad, so I didn’t stay here for very long. I’ve heard the sunset is quite beautiful, so I plan to come here again sometime. Even though it was cloudy, there was a very nice view of the ocean and Nokonoshima (能古島).  

 

After this, I continued down the road, reaching stop 2, Iki no Matsubara (生の松原).

I’ve been planning to come here for a while, and I’m happy I did.

I thought it was really beautiful with the beach right near the trees. I’ll definitely come back sometime when the weather is nicer.

 

I continued my journey and soon arrived at Nagatare Seaside Park (長垂海浜公園).

I’ve been here before and I really like this place. It’s one of my favourite places to just sit down and relax.

I wanted to stay for longer, but unfortunately it started raining so I had to leave sooner than I planned.

 

After leaving, I went along the coast for a while, staring at the ocean. It was great!

My next stop was a surprise. I crossed the road and saw an interesting sign. After reading it, it turns out I was at a place called Imayama (今山).

I didn’t stay for long, but I climbed to the top and saw a shrine (?). It was a nice place, I’ll probably come back some time to see if there’s anything else interesting nearby.

 

My next stop was quite far away. I was exploring all the roads and side streets, and I saw a sign pointing to a place called Imazu Undou Koen (今津運動公園).

I love parks so I decided I had to check this place out. It was really fun.

There were some students practicing tennis and some people jogging.

The weather had cleared up at this point, and the sun was shining, so I walked around for about 20 minutes. I also saw a few families walking around.

 

I was really happy the sun was out. Whenever I am outside and the sun is shining, I’m at my happiest!

An English phrase I like to use is “I am in my element”, which means that you are in a situation where you feel very comfortable and relaxed.

 

I hopped on my bike and continued down the road.

My second last stop was a place called West Side Beach. I didn’t swim here, but it seemed nice so I plan to come back sometime!

 

To be honest, I have no idea where my last stop was! It was a tiny little beach just near the coast road. I love swimming, so before I went home I had a swim here. It was completely empty, so it was like having my own private beach!

This adventure was one of the most enjoyable days I have had in my 3 years in Japan. Riding to places I have never been, swimming at the beach, just enjoying life!

 

I don’t know where I’ll go on my next adventure, but wherever it is, I’m sure it’ll be great!

I know some customers at the cafe enjoy reading my blogs, so I’ll do my best to post regular updates for you all! 😊

 

Nagatare Seaside Park (長垂海浜公園)

 

Imayama (今山)

 

West Side beach

 

Somewhere

 

Final Stop

 

Final Stop

 

 

こんにちは😊

今日はキースのブログで、オーストラリア帰省についてのパート２です。

パースのロットネスト、とってもキレイですね〜。行ってみたくなりました！！

 

Hey everyone, Keith here again!

This blog is part 2 of my trip back to Australia this April. This time, I’ll be talking about my favourite place in Perth, Rottnest Island.

I talk about Rottnest at Global Cafe very often, so you might already know about it if we have met before.

 

Rottnest is a small island about 30km away from Perth. It’s very famous for a few things, but mainly its extremely beautiful beaches and an animal called a ‘Quokka’.

 

When people go to Rottnest, they usually hire a bicycle and ride around the island, visiting the different beaches along the way. I do this every time I visit the island too!

Rottnest is a special place for me (and many other people from Perth) because I have been visiting Rottnest since I was a child.  

I love the beach, and Rottnest has some of the best beaches in the country.  

My favourites are called ‘The basin’ and ‘Little Salmon Bay’. The Basin is great for snorkelling, and Little Salmon Bay is great for swimming and relaxing.

I went to Rottnest with my Dad in April and we had a great time. My dad loves the beach even more than I do!

First, we had lunch at the famous Rottnest Bakery. Then we cycled around the Island and visited 4 different beaches, then sat down at the hotel restaurant with some Fish’n’Chips and a beer. I’ll hold these memories for many years to come.

 

Earlier I mentioned the ‘Quokka’. They are often called “The happiest animal on Earth”!

They’re a really cute animal, very famous for smiling.

Quokkas can be found in a couple of places in Western Australia, but mainly on Rottnest Island. They have no major predators on Rottnest, so they are extremely friendly and not afraid of humans at all! They walk around on the street and will often walk up to people to say ‘hello’! You aren’t supposed to touch them or feed them though.

‘Quokka selfies’ have become pretty popular lately. I’ve never taken one before, but I’ve seen lots of them before, and the quokkas always look really cute.

 

If you go to Perth, Rottnest is definitely a must-visit place!

If you have the time, I definitely recommend staying there for 1 night. There are different types of accommodation ranging from cheap to expensive.

If you don’t have the time, you can do a day-trip which is still very fun. Take the early ferry to the Island and the latest ferry back to the mainland to get the most out of your day.

 

 I was in Australia for a whole month, and my day on Rottnest Island was definitely the highlight of my trip. I really miss Rottnest so I hope I can visit it again sometime soon!

 

predator・・捕食動物、捕食者

selfie・・セルフィー、自撮り（写真）

 

‘The basin’

 

‘Little Salmon Bay’

 

‘Fish’n’Chips and a beer’

 

‘Quokka’

こんにちは😊

今日はキースのブログです。

もともと散策好きのキースですが、自転車を買ってさらに色々探検しているみたいですね。

今回は飯盛山（382m）への山登り？ハイキング？についてです。

頻出のボキャブラリーを以下につけていますので、参考にしてくださいね。

 

Hey everyone, Keith here!

I recently went on a little adventure during my day off, and thought I’d share it with you.

I live in Atago, near Muromi station. Every day when I travel to work, I need to cross Muromi Bridge. When I cross it, I can see Fukuoka Tower to the left, and a mountain range to the right. I’ve always wondered just how far away those mountains are, and whether or not I could climb them!  

On my day off, I decided I would get on my bicycle and ride in the direction of the mountains and see what happens!

I was a little worried because my bicycle isn’t exactly…good. I bought it for 1000 yen about 8 months ago! But, luckily, there was no problem.

 

 

Anyway, I set off at 9:00am. It was a beautiful day.

I followed Muromi River to get to the mountains. I had never been this far downriver before, and I saw lots of really beautiful places near my house.

It turns out the mountain isn’t as far as I thought it was! It was only around 7km from my house.

I didn’t even know the mountain’s name! But, when I got there, I found out it was Mt. Iimori.

 

Now, I had NO experience climbing mountains, so I did not know what to expect.

It was a lot of fun to climb Mt. Iimori, but it was pretty tiring. It was also pretty hot outside, and I was covered in sweat.

 

During my climb, I met a really nice lady who was resting near the top. We had a conversation (in Japanese) about Australia and where I was from.

A couple of minutes later, I finally arrived at the top of Mt. Iimori!

The view of Fukuoka was breathtaking. Absolutely beautiful.

 

I also met 3 more people at the top of Mt. Iimori, two ladies and a man. The 2 women were resting at the top, and they greeted me when I arrived. I sat with them, and we talked (again, in Japanese) for about 40 minutes!

We talked about all sorts of things. Australia, Japan, Fukuoka, jobs, dreams etc. They were some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life!  

A man arrived later, from the other side of the mountain. He seemed to be a hobby climber, and said he was climbing two more mountains later that day! I was amazed, because he was around 60 years old, but still very fit!

He offered to take me to the other mountains with him, but I had to politely decline because I was a bit sick on this day and didn’t want to overdo it.

 

Anyway, after saying goodbye to my new friends I began my descent. It was much, much quicker going down, but a little dangerous. I don’t have mountain climbing shoes, so I almost fell down a couple of times!

I was really tired during my journey back home, so I went really slowly, just admiring the beautiful scenery of Fukuoka.

 

I’ve decided that from now on when I have a day off, I’m going to ride my bicycle somewhere in Fukuoka I haven’t been before, so you can expect more blogs from me in the future!  

 

That’s all for today, I hope you enjoyed reading!

I’ll have another チャリ adventure blog for you in the future!

 

 

mountain range    山並み、山脈、山岳地帯

set off　　出発する

turn out 〜　  　〜であることが分かる　

breathtaking    　息をのむような、驚くような

fit　　（体が）健康な、元気な

descent　　（山など高いところから）降りること、下り道

almost fell down  　転びそうになった、危うく転ぶところだった

こんにちは😊今日はキースのブログです。

 4月にビザの切り替えでオーストラリアに帰っていたキースが

帰国時のことをブログに書いてくれました。

私もブログを読んでキースのホームタウン、パースのフリーマントルに行ってみたくなりました。

 

Hey everyone, long time no see!

It’s been a long time since my last blog. I was too busy with study and I kept forgetting to write them.

I recently returned to Australia to change my Visa. I arrived back in Japan about two months ago.

 

For my first blog since coming back to Japan, I thought I’d tell you all about Australia. I was there for a whole month, so I have lots of photos to show and stories to tell!

 

This blog is all about my hometown, Fremantle. (or Freo as us locals say!)

I was only there for a day during my trip, but I was able to visit some of my favourite places.

 

Freo is famous for a few things. Number one is the restaurants!
Freo is well known in Perth for having some of the best restaurants in the state, especially Italian and Asian restaurants.

My favourite restaurant in Freo is a place called “Taka’s Kitchen”. It’s a cheap Japanese restaurant in Fremantle’s food court.

It isn’t super high-quality or expensive. It’s cheap, normal food.

But, I’ve been eating at Taka’s Kitchen since I was 4 years old! So, it holds a special place in my heart.

I was really happy to eat there again. It tasted really nostalgic!

 

For the rest of the day, I just walked around Fremantle, seeing some familiar places.

I went to a place called “The Roundhouse”, which is small building that was used as a prison in the past.

My last destinations were the “Esplanade Park”, a park close to the harbour, which is Freo’s most popular spot for families and “Little Creatures”, my favourite brewery/bar in Fremantle.

 

It really did make me happy to visit my hometown again. I hadn’t seen it in two whole years!

I love Fukuoka, but I do miss Perth and Fremantle. I hope I can go back to visit again sometime soon.

 

 it holds a special place in my heart・・心に残っている

 

The first photo–   “The heart of Fremantle” 

 

“The Roundhouse”

 

“Esplanade Park”

 

“Bathers Beach”

こんにちは😊

今日はキースのブログです。

ご存知の方のいらっしゃるかと思いますが、キースはMartial Art (武術）のインストラクターとしても

ジムで教えています。

先日、日本で初の試合に出場したときのことを書いてくれました。

試合自体もさることながら、日本での初の体験が面白かったようです。

ボキャブラリーを下に付けていますので、是非読んでみてくださいね。

 

Hey everyone!

It’s been a while since I wrote my last blog, sorry about that. I’ve been very busy with study, work, and training. But, I’ll be more active from now on!

 

Some of you may know that I love martial arts. I have been training for about 6-years now. I practice Muay Thai (Thai Kickboxing) and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Some of you may also know the old Japanese organisation known as “PRIDE”. That kind of sport is what I enjoy doing!

 

I thought I would share something exciting I did recently. On Sunday afternoon, I had my first amateur kickboxing fight in this beautiful country. It was held at ACROS Fukuoka.

I thought I definitely won the fight, but it ended up being a draw. I’m a little disappointed, but I don’t mind. I’ll definitely win next time!

 

It was a little intimidating when I arrived at ACROS. There were dozens of people, all from different gyms all over Fukuoka (and probably from other parts of Japan!). However, I was a little surprised. I thought I would be much more nervous than I was!

I didn’t have any butterflies in my stomach at all. I knew that I had trained hard, and that I was ready to win.

I’m very happy with my performance, and hopefully the next time I write a blog about this subject, I can report my win!

 

I had been training much longer than my opponent, but he was definitely a tough person. I punched and kicked him a lot, but he kept moving forward, and he didn’t give up. Many martial artists have this kind of quality, and it is something I respect a lot.

Hats off to him for putting up a good fight! (Hats off to him = Congratulations)

 

One thing I found quite funny about that day, is that I was the only foreign fighter. Before the fight, the announcer calls out the name of each fighter, and the gym they train out of. All day, they had been calling out Japanese names, but when it was my turn, everyone in the Event Hall heard “KEITH ANDREW DEAN”, and several people turned around to look at me. Until now, that’s probably the most I’ve ever felt like I really ‘stand out’ in Japan!

 

Anyway, all in all, it was a great experience, and I will definitely fight again in the future.

I had one fight in Australia, but that was 5 years ago, and I’ve all but forgotten.

 

Thanks for reading, everyone! I’ll have another blog for you soon!

 

intimidating  怖い

have butterflies in one’s stomach   （緊張で）ドキドキする、そわそわする、落ち着かない

put up　　　戦って抵抗する、挑む

stand out　　目立つ、注目を浴びる

all in all　　全体として

all but　　　ほとんど全て忘れてしまった 　　

こんにちは😊

今日はキースのブログです。

先日、能古島に行ってきたときのことを書いてくれました。

本当に綺麗な写真ばかりですが、綺麗な花や景色を素直に綺麗と思うキースの感受性もステキだなと思います。

いつものように分かりやすい英語で書いてくれてますので是非読んでみて下さいね。

 

After months and months of wanting to go, I finally managed to visit Nokonoshima recently!

About 8 months ago, I saw a photograph of Nokonoshima and immediately thought that I had to visit there one day, and around a week ago, I finally did!

 

I visited with my girlfriend, and when we arrived at Nokonoshima, we had our first problem. Should we walk to the Island Park, or catch a bus?We decided to walk, and I’m glad we did! The walk was peaceful, and there were many beautiful sights that we would not have seen if we caught the bus.

 

Before coming to Nokonoshima, I didn’t actually do any research. All I had seen was a beautiful photograph of a field of flowers, so I wasn’t really sure what there was to do at the Island Park. It turned out there was quite a lot! From restaurants, croquet (Noko-noko-ball), gift shops, all the way to animal pens where you could feed goats!

 

Walking in the Island Park was really fun, and very relaxing. One of my favourite things to do is just walk around parks in Fukuoka, and this was definitely the best up until now!

 

My girlfriend wanted to see the Rapeseed Blossoms (菜の花), which were at the end of the Island Park, so we slowly made our way there.

Once we arrived, I saw, quite possibly, the most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my life.

The flowers were like an ocean of yellow. I had never seen anything even close to this before, so seeing this field of flowers really was something truly special.

I’m really having trouble describing it with words. It’s something you have to see for yourselves, so if you haven’t seen them yet, you definitely should!

 

After we arrived, we decided it was time to eat, and being the Australian that I am, I had to eat barbeque!

It was a bit expensive (2700 yen each), but worth it.

The restaurant was right next to the blossoms. I felt like an Australian again. Sitting next to beautiful scenery, beer in hand and meat on the barbie! (barbeque)

The food was delicious, and I wanted to order more, but I couldn’t afford it…

The barbeque set came with beef, pork skewers, chicken skewers, sausage, onigiri, squid, scallops and vegetables.

After our stomachs were full, we did another lap of the park to see everything it had to offer. There was a light-up of the Nanohana field in the evening, so we waited until sunset and walked back.

It was beautiful at night, but I think I preferred it during the day with the sun lighting up the flowers.

After that, we simply walked to the bus and made our way home.

Nokonoshima was a beautiful place, and I’ll definitely be going back sometime. The Cosmos flowers bloom in October, which I must go to!

 

My next stop on the list is Umi no Naka Michi and Shikanoshima, so I’ll have another blog of those places sometime soon!

こんにちは😊

今日はキースのブログです。

２週間前に天草に行って、ホームステイ、ドルフィンウォッチングや料理体験などを

満喫してきたときのことについて書いてくれました。

天草でのホストファミリーのおもてなしに感動したようで、益々日本のことも好きになってくれたみたいです😊

とても読みやすい英語で書かれていますし、写真も載せていますので

是非読んでみてくださいね。

＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

Two Days in the Countryside. My visit to Amakusa

Two weeks ago, I went on a tour to Amakusa in Kumamoto. This is only the second time I had been to the Japanese countryside, so I was very excited!

The bus ride was very long, but time passed quickly. I enjoyed simply looking at the beautiful scenery during the ride to our first destination, which was a seaside restaurant. The restaurant was called ‘Ripple Land’, which is right near a place called ‘Ariake Octopus Street’.

The food was delicious! We had rice, octopus, vegetable tempura, sashimi and some sides. I have only eaten octopus a few times in Japan, and this was definitely the best I have had so far.

 

After eating at the restaurant, my friends and I walked down to the sea to relax before we left for our next destination.

From ‘Ariake Octopus Street’, we soon arrived at our next destination, which was dolphin watching!

The tour group split into two small groups, and we rode on separate boats. The dolphin watching was a full hour, but the time passed so quickly! I didn’t know what to expect. I had never been dolphin watching before, so I only expected to see a few dolphins, but I was completely wrong! They were everywhere, hundreds of dolphins! There were about 5 different boats on the water, all with tourists wanting to see the dolphins. It was a great feeling, sitting on the front of the boat, surrounded by beautiful scenery and the clean country air.

After the dolphin watching, it was starting to get late, so we headed to our accommodation. I didn’t read my tour information before this day, so I didn’t actually know where we were staying, so I was very surprised to find out that I would be doing a homestay for a night! I will admit that I was a bit nervous. I had never done a homestay before, and I am still not very confident with my level of Japanese. But, my host family were some of the nicest people I had ever met in my entire life.

When we arrived at their house, they showed us to the dining room, and a feast had been prepared! There were two huge plates of sashimi, a nabe pot, a mountain of yakitori skewers, and my favourite of all, beer.

I was with two of my friends, and there was no way we could eat all of this! But, we certainly did our best.

In such a short amount of time, I really grew to like my host family, so when I go back to Amakusa I will definitely contact them again.

 

The next day, after saying goodbye to our host family, we still had a few places of the tour still to visit.

First was a place called ‘Yamagoya’, here we learned how to make some Japanese food! We made a few different things, and everyone participated.

I don’t know the name of it, but the first thing was made with sweet potato, egg, sugar, salt, flour, and then fried in oil. I don’t know what it was, but it tasted great!

We also made onigiri, which I was terrible at. My onigiri looked more like cubes, but we all had a laugh about it, and made some other strange shapes like triangles and circles, which were then named the ‘pyramid’ and the ‘baseball’ onigiri.

Once we finished making everything, we all sat around a large table to eat the food we had made.

The people at Yamagoya were really friendly, and it really was a great experience learning how to cook from them.

 

From here, it was a short drive to an olive oil farm called ‘Avilo’. Here, we did an olive oil tasting. Now, I have been to wine tastings before, but never an olive oil tasting.

I felt a little strange when I thought about drinking olive oil because I had never done that before.

The ladies who hosted the tour first talked about the creation process of olive oil, but I didn’t understand any of it.

There were 3 different types of olive oil to taste. One was called ‘mild’, one was ‘spicy’, and one was just plain olive oil.

Even though I had never done something like this before, I was very surprised how different they tasted! I never knew olive oil could have such different flavours. If I had the money, I would have bought some right there.

After visiting Avilo, I was genuinely sad that we only had 1 more destination before we had to return. I was really enjoying Amakusa.

Our last destination was just a short visit to a large market. It was similar to a supermarket, but with much fresher products. But what surprised me was how cheap everything was! Some vegetables were 30-40% cheaper than supermarkets in Fukuoka, and much fresher. It’s probably a good thing that I did not bring any money, because I would have spent it all at this market. Maybe next time…

 

We were here for around half an hour before we returned to Fukuoka, said our goodbyes, and returned to our homes.

Amakusa was an amazing experience. Even now, two weeks later, I still miss the beautiful scenery and country air.

I will definitely visit Amakusa and my host family again sometime.Amakusa is the type of place I would like to live someday in the future. A nice big house surrounded by greenery and mountain views.

It’s hard to explain, but what I miss the most is the air and the atmosphere. It’s something you just can’t experience when you’re near a big city.

 

I’m happy I had the opportunity to visit the Japanese countryside, it’s definitely something I want to do again!

こんにちは😊

今日はキースのブログです。

柳川への日帰り旅行について書いてくれました。

福岡に住み始めて、今まで行ったことのある一番遠い場所が姪浜だったというキース。

柳川への日帰り旅行はかなりエキサイティングだったみたいです。

とっても分かりやすい英語で書かれていますので、是非読んでみてくださいね。

 

A Day Trip to Yanagawa

 A while ago, I was lucky enough to visit Yanagawa for a day with my girlfriend.

Before this trip, the furthest away I had been from Chiyo is Meinohama, so I was pretty excited to get a bit further out of the city.

The journey itself was nice and relaxing, just sitting on the train, watching the beautiful countryside as it passed by.

I hadn’t eaten breakfast that day, so we immediately headed to an Eel restaurant that my girlfriend knew about. I’ve eaten eel before, but only in Australia, so this was my first Japanese experience with eating eel.

I have to say, you can’t even compare the two. The eel I had eaten in Australia was certainly good, but it was nothing compared the restaurant I visited in Yanagawa.

We ate two different types of eel and various vegetables. All were delicious, and I definitely want to visit again!

One thing that I was a little worried about was the small pile of eel bones that was in a small dish. I thought that eating them might have a risk of injuring my throat, as normal fish bones can do, but to my surprise, even the bones tasted great!

After we finished eating, we headed to what Yanagawa is most famous for, the boat rides down the river.This was one of the most relaxing things I have done in Fukuoka.

The most impressive thing about it all was the guide. My guess is that he was around 70+ years old, and he steered this boat for the full hour without a single issue. At the same time, he talked about the history of Yanagawa and even about the flowers that we saw during the trip. I couldn’t understand half of it, but that didn’t matter. I was having too much fun.

The highlight of the boat ride was definitely going underneath the bridges. The boatman would duck down and begin to sing, and everyone on the boat would get into it!

They mentioned that you can book a boat ride in the evening, with candles lighting the river. I will definitely be visiting Yanagawa again for one of these evening boat rides.

Once we had eaten the delicious eel and rode the riverboats, there wasn’t that much else to do in Yanagawa, so for a few hours, we just walked around Yanagawa.

All in all, Yanagawa is a beautiful place that I definitely want to visit again. If you haven’t been to Yanagawa before, I definitely recommend it for a day trip!

It costs around 1700 yen for the train, 3000 yen for a meal and around 1000 yen for the boatride. Fairly cheap for an entire day of entertainment!

 

 

 

 

こんにちは😊

今日はキースのブログ。パースと福岡の違いについてのブログ第２弾です。

日本にいると気づかない点も、外国人の視点になってみてみると、気づきがあって面白いですね。

私たち日本人がどんなふうに見られているかという点も面白いですね。

英語学習者に役立つ語彙を盛り込んでおり、ひねった表現も入ってないので、是非是非読んでみてくださいね。

Hello again everyone!
In my last blog, I talked about some differences between Perth and Fukuoka. I wrote about bicycles, income and the prices of everyday items.

Today, I wanted to talk about a couple of the more major and more noticeable differences between these two beautiful countries.

First, multiculturalism.
Australia is an extremely diverse country. When walking down the street, or riding the train. I can encounter people from all over the world. Just walking down the street to the supermarket, or to a café, I can see Australian people, American people, Japanese people, Chinese people, African people. People from all corners of the world.

However, when I arrived in Japan, one of the first things I noticed was that I was surrounded by Japanese people. Even after 6-months, I still find it to be quite rare for me to see a foreigner out on the street.
I am sure there are more foreigners in cities such as Tokyo or Osaka, but it is still very surprising!
I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing. It gives me more opportunities to study Japanese! It is just so different to Perth, that even after living in Japan for 6 months, it still surprises me every day!

The second major difference I wanted to talk about is the differences in personality due to culture.
Everybody is unique, everybody has their own personality. However, there are some cultural differences that make it quite hard for me to adjust in Japan.

Generally, Australian people tend to be more direct. If we dislike something, we will tell you. If we do not want to do something, we will tell you.
I have experienced some situations in Japan where I have been direct with people, and they thought I was being rude. Not just Japanese people! Even other foreigners have mistaken this directness for rudeness.

I find some Japanese people tend to be the complete opposite!
I have met a few Japanese people who may dislike something, but they do not want to say anything, just in-case they offend you.
This can be frustrating for me, because I am used to people being more direct. So if a person does not tell me they dislike something, I will not immediately know this!
As a very casual, laid-back Australian, I feel this will take me a very long time to adjust to.
Despite these difficulties, I love living in Fukuoka. It really is a beautiful city, and I hope to live here for a very long time!
Thank you for reading, everyone!